Escape
by RoseBoy
Summary: How would you feel if you were forced into a place where in every corner, darkness seeks?


**I was deeply moved when I visited the immigration center at Angel Island, and well, this was born. This is only slightly based off of the experiences that Immigrants felt when entering the US through Angel Island during the Gilded Age. Emphasis on "Slightly". So many creative liberties were taken with this poem.**

 **And it's vague on purpose, so you can interpret it however you want, even without the context given above.**

* * *

 **Escape**

As I enter the gates after the harrowing journey  
Never quite certain _which_ heaven will greet me  
I feel the rain of freedom kiss my hopeful heart  
And I feel that this may be the beginning, a new start  
For me, so that perhaps I may be finally free.

The lights glitter and flicker before me, harking  
A great euphoria pooling in my chest, sparking  
And I hope, I pray, that I will retrieve what I lack  
The great wings sprouting, bursting from my back  
For me, so that perhaps I may be finally free.

And then the gates close.

They close, they slam, they shut behind me  
The seven doors close, a warning I took too lightly  
And I pass by my kin, torture in their eyes endless  
And I'm shoved into a room, a room they said was  
For me, so that perhaps I may be finally free.

Suddenly, a man comes running, rushing in  
I am immobile, frozen, simply a toy to him  
And just as quickly he whirls back out and is gone  
Leaving only a bell on my wrist, in the shape of a pawn  
For me, so that perhaps I may be finally free.

I learn quickly that my daydreams mean nothing  
For I'm thrust into a world where they are hunting  
For any move, any mark, any look they don't like  
All they need to hear is the chime, so that they might  
See me, so that perhaps I may be finally free.

And then the bell rings, and I'm thrown out of my bed  
Stripped down, unclothed, from my toes to my head  
And I'm no longer human, an animal on display  
And he roughly grabs me and burns a number on my skin without delay  
For me, so that perhaps I may be finally free

And then the bell rings, and I'm strapped to a chair  
Where a shadow looms over me, and I'm forced to despair  
As he babbles in a language that I cannot understand  
And I quail in my seat as he raises his hand  
At me, so that perhaps I may be finally free

And then the bell rings, I behold a tight space  
Where barely a person could scarcely fit their face  
And they clamp in my head, and spit flies as they yell  
Searching for lies in the truth that I tell  
For me, so that perhaps I may be finally free

And then the bell rings, and I'm greeted by my bed  
And my clothes, and I feel a pounding growing in my head  
And I ponder what I did to ever deserve this  
As I'm handed a platter of foreign food that is worthless  
For me, so that perhaps I may be finally free

And then the bell rings, and the cycle restarts  
An endless eternity, run by soulless hearts  
And as the torture continues, ribs appearing on my skin  
I lie listless on the dirt, hearing the call of the pelican  
To me, so that perhaps I may be finally free.

And in my spare time, I can only dwell  
On my beloved daughters, and the son I loved so well  
Wondering if my wild abandonment _for_ them is forgiven  
And I wonder if that action will ever grant them  
The courage to _stay there_ , while I waste away here to be finally free.

But as I remember them, the bell drowns out my thought  
Invading, overwhelming, my barriers all for naught  
And the bell rings, and it rings, and it forever rings  
And it rings and it rings and it rings and it rings  
AND IT RINGS - so that perhaps I may be finally free.

I hear the barking of my thoughts get louder, a nighttime gale  
Whistling through my ears as I shriek under the hail  
Of the thousand whips that crack with sharp terror  
And the chime on my wrist that tolls, signaling doom for the wearer  
A mark, they said, so that perhaps I may be finally free.

And I crack, I break, I cannot stand it, I SCREAM  
And they push me back, slowly rip apart my seams  
So that all that is left of me is a pile of rags, and that _damned bell  
_ And they kick me back, relentless ringing in my ears, to my cell  
All this, they said, so that perhaps I may be finally free.

I eternally enter the glowing doors  
Where either death or destruction moors  
In the great river that has washed me clean of all emotion  
A hollow husk, all feeling sucked away, floating out on the ocean  
All except a sliver of hope...

So that perhaps…

So that perhaps…

I may be finally, _finally_ free…

Free to live  
Free to die  
Free to rest  
Free to fight

Fight my way out of this hell  
Fight my way out of this prison cell  
Fight my way out so that I can rip off this bell  
Fight my way out so that I may again see those I love well

Please…

I.

Need.

To.

 _._

 _._

 _E̶̜͈̭̠̯̪̜͇͎̗͈̦̟̓̀̏̂̂̉̓̈̓s̶͎̣̪̼̮̗̪̩̺̙̰̻̥̔͋̍͜͝c̷͚̣̘͕̤͎͚̝̓͜a̸̭̤͔͎̞̮͕̹̹͐̽͋̉̓̽̔͐͗́͆̃̕p̶̝̰̪͙̈͜͠ȩ̵̘͔̜̦͖̤̰̘̜̈̈́̀̀̃̅̈́̉͋͋͋̃̈́̒͜_

 _._

* * *

 **I, uh, hoped you enjoyed? Or are sad? Or are moved? I honestly don't know.**

 **Uh...I'm going to stop talking now... *hesitantly walks off soapbox while crickets play in the background***


End file.
